Europe is likely to dominate the exchanges on Question Time once again this week, after David Cameron's speech. Lucky Nigel Farage was on last week, so we don't have to put up with him again.
There is a fascinating essay by Thomas Laqueur covering a number of recent books on the sinking of the Titanic in the current issue of the London Review of Books. He argues that the class analysis of the disaster, as popularised by the James Cameron film, is not well founded. Facilities for steerage class passengers were far better on the Titanic than on most ships and the casualty list defies crude analysis: The highest mortality rate was not in steerage but among the men in Second Class, who died at twice the rate of men in steerage and five times ...
Kingston council's child protection department has been the subject of various enquiries since serious failings were uncovered by OFSTED last year. This latest report from the BBC suggests that social work managers engaged in a deliberate cover up following the murder of Charito Cruz in 2011 - despite her circumstances having been repeatedly reported to the council. So far Cllr Trish Bamford, Lead Member for Children and Young People, has resisted opposition calls for her resignation, as has council leader Derek Osbourne. But the news of the timing of the former director's departure (plus the obligatory six figure golden handshake) ...
There was a good article in the Daily Telegraph by Peter Oborne yesterday. He pointed out that David Cameron's speech on Europe had won him short-term acclaim but risks long-term disaster: Mr Cameron, by committing the Tories to an in-out referendum, has greatly increased the likelihood that Britain will eventually leave the European Union, while a formal split within the Conservative Party over Europe now looks almost certain.In other words, the Conservative backwoods are supporting Cameron now because he has made it possible for him to oppose him in any referendum campaign. Oborne also draws instructive parallels between Cameron's position ...
Several people have emailed me asking questions about Winchester's support for homeless people during the recent cold weather. I checked with the council's Housing Options and Support Manager, Steve Tong, and he's confirmed that the council is currently taking the following actions: The Council and its partners undertook a rough sleeper count in accordance with DCLG guidelines on 7th November 2012 which recorded 7 people sleeping rough that night. Winchester Churches Nightshelter has seventeen regular bed spaces for homeless people. During cold weather in the winter months, the Nightshelter increases its capacity with four additional beds funded by the Council ...
[IMG: image] I do watch Loose women and Bargain Hunt most days. But it is with the sound turned down in the gym. It all seems quite good, until I actually heard Loose Women and it all sounded a bit daft, and actually listened to the blessed Tim Wonnacott alma mater of my own school, West Buckland, and he sounded like a retired colonel with a cucumber up his bum. But in the last two days I have actually had to listen and watch a significant portion of the remarkable scion of civilisation that is called The Alan Titchmarsh Show. ...
On Saturday, John Leech and I met with local residents and campaigners to launch the campaign and petition to save Withington Baths following the shock decision by Labour's Town Hall bosses to propose closing the historic Baths on Burton ... Continue reading →
theeconomist: KAL's cartoon: this week, choppy waters.
Ask Liberal Democrat activists what they believe in and they will tell you that it is, above all, individual liberty. Yet it can be difficult to discover just what it is that we would be free to do under a Liberal Democrat government that we cannot do now. We are often to be found on the side of the argument that favours restrictions on liberty for the sake of desirable outcomes like better public health. So I was pleased to see Jeremy Browne's article on Lib Dem Voice celebrating the fact that the government is to remove the words "insulting ...
Thu 24th
19:30
Why those of us on the left should support Michael Gove's efforts to "clever-up" the curriculum
Title shamelessly stolen from this excellent blog post I grew up on two Council estates and the greatest gift my mother gave me (after life) was that she taught me to read at a high standard before I went to school. She would often tell me that the way to escape, get a better job, have a better life and not live in poverty was to work hard and school and get qualifications. Many of my peers at school (many of whom lived in worse poverty than I) had this lesson drummed into them and although we did not go ...
Eleven years ago, I was working for the Electoral Reform Society and started on a project with an incredibly motivated woman called Louise King of the Childrens Rights Alliance for England. Together, we set up a campaign called Votes at 16. We got a wide range of different organisations on board - the big four childrens charities; political parties, the National Union of Students and UK Youth Parliament, British Youth Council, Care Leavers Alliance and Black Youth Forum. We ended up with a coalition of more than 30 organisations. Most of these groups had little in common except a desire ...
I think probably the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith for its endurance across the years and its appeal to much of the fandom - so much so that it had its own successful spin-off, the Sarah Jane Adventures. And Sarah Jane was such a good role model for girls. I've liked having the whole relationship between the Doctor and the Ponds explored - the effect he has on their day to day life and their feelings about it. And then of course there's the entirely freaky idea that your best friend that you grow up with could actually be your ...
Jackson's Lane is embarking on a Community Project – involving telling the stories of Haringey's older residents – and they want local people to get involved. Looks like a lot of fun. If you are interested the first meeting is on 29th January at 6pm at Jackson's Lane. You can read the full story here.
Davos is here again - that's Davos, a Swiss town that hosts the annual business leaders' conference, not Davros, creator of the Daleks. The Wall Street Journal is not normally the most anti-establishment of newspapers but it has published a revealing article about the conference and the organisation that hosts it, the World Economic Forum (WEF). Some choice quotes: The WEF says it is there to improve the world, but it is really there to exploit rich people's need to feel important. It is driven not by achievement but by vanity.and: Pride and ambition are monetized with equal brilliance on ...
Thu 24th
17:37
Lord Rennard writes... Individual Electoral Registration: a journey from Tory instincts to Lib Dem l...
In 2003, the Electoral Commission recommended that Great Britain should follow the example of Northern Ireland and move to a system of Individual Electoral Registration (IER), where everyone fills in their own form. Labour havered for six years, fearing that 'their' voters might not register individually. It took until 2009 for them to introduce framework legislation to bring in individual registration at some future point, with no guarantees as to exactly when. When the Coalition took office, the two parties agreed to speed up Labour's glacial process. Ministers settled on a transitional period encompassing the next General Election. The new ...
1. Austerity "People are increasingly frustrated that decisions taken further and further away from them mean their living standards are slashed through enforced austerity" "It is through the Greek Parliament that Antonis Samaras has to pass his Government's austerity measures." ... Continue reading →
The European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) officially opened last week at Europol's headquarters in The Hague, marking an important step in the fight against organised crime and terrorism. The centre will support European cooperation in protecting against cyber attacks on critical ... Continue reading →
We may have just overtaken Brazil to become the world's sixth largest economy, but the overall economic outlook for the UK remains relatively bleak. Some economists foresee a full-blown triple-dip recession, and with consumer spending and domestic investment remaining sluggishand more public spending cuts ... Continue reading →
Below are recently submitted Planning Applications in the Chorlton area. You can find out more information about any of the proposals on the City Council's Planning Portal at http://tinyurl.com/yv6lex or by contacting the South Area Planning Group Manager - Roger Hall; Tel: (0161) 234 4536; email: r.hall@manchester.gov.uk . You can also make a Planning representation (in support or opposition) to Mr Hall or the designated planning officer for each application. Please feel free to contact me on (07947383740; cllr.v.chamberlain@manchester.gov.uk) if you wish to discuss any application and please also send me a copy of any representation you make. 101039/FH/2012/S1 240 ...
I have received notification that an application has been received by the City Council for a Premises Licence Variation for Rileys, 302B Barlow Moor Road, Manchester, M21 8AY A summary of the application is as follows: Application is to remove over 18 area on ground floor near to entrance and the remaining over 18 area on ground floor to be extended in size. If you have any comments, you can make these directly to The Licensing Unit (e-mail: premises.licensing@manchester.gov.uk) or write to: The Licensing Unit, Regulatory & Enforcement Services, Premises Team, PO Box 271, Manchester, M18 8YU by ...
Since publishing the list of Labour MPs who back an in/out EU referendum yesterday I have been in touch with the Labour press office about the differing opinions of party leader Ed Miliband and policy chief Jon Cruddas on the issue. The press office confirmed that Cruddas is the party's policy review coordinator, and that ...
Last March I blogged about the successful campaign to stop the Council reopening a 65 year old disused footpath at great cost to taxpayers (conservative estimates were between £40-50,000). Yesterday I received an email to say that the City Council intends to apply to the Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, 13 March 2013 at 2.00pm for Orders under Section 116 of the Highways Act 1980 for the stopping up of four lengths of footpath between Barlow Moor Road and Claude Road (Footpath 181), Chorlton, as they are unnecessary for public use. The vast majority of local residents support the stopping up ...
I have to agree with Petros Fassoulas of the European Movemwent UK that there was something distinctly schizophrenic politically in David Cameron's much hyped Euro-speech. Read Petros's verdict below: A speech of contradictions. This has been a speech of contradictions. The Prime Minister tried to be all things to all men and managed to ...
I wonder if any colleagues, or any regular readers, have ever tried to find the "Parliamentary Rifle Range". For some years, while I was still an MP, there were regular requests for this apparently anachronistic facility, somewhere in the basement, to be replaced with a creche for the children of staff and members of both Houses. One Conservative MP naughtily suggested that the two roles could be combined. A few weeks back, I spotted the following exchange in the Commons: Rifle Range 9. Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab): What the cost to the House of Commons Service of ...
In his speech on Europe yesterday, David Cameron spoke not as Prime Minister but as a Tory party leader backed into a corner by his outspoken tea-party backbenchers. It was never going to be possible to appease his own right-wing and at the same time reassure his European partners. By promising an in-out referendum following an anticipated but far from certain renegotiated EU treaty by 2017, he has chosen to prioritise party political interests. As a result, the UK will lose further influence in Europe as other Member States anticipate a "Brexit" and discount the UK's views altogether. Even worse, ...
[IMG: hs2] I've just completed and sent off my response to the government's consultation on the proposed HS2 Property Compensation Scheme. The deadline for getting responses in is 31st January, so there is just over a week left to do so! The scheme as currently proposed would be grossly unfair for 98% of the many thousands of people affected by HS2. Whatever your view of the rights and wrongs of HS2, and I remain resolutely against it, it cannot be right that individuals should be expected to bear a major financial burden because of a project which is allegedly for ...
[IMG: David Boyle] David Boyle has done an excellent job as the government's independent reviewer into the use of choice in public services, as you might expect from one of the party's most consistently original and rigorous policy thinkers. The Barriers To Choice Review he has produced is packed full of good policy ideas which would help the most disadvantaged people in particular take more power over their lives and the services they depend on. Good policy – and problematic politics, as David himself has written about over on Lib Dem Voice: The word 'choice' itself divides people, even those ...
[IMG: cameron-europe] There are two very good reasons David Cameron didn't want the Tories endlessly to bang on about Europe. First, because most of the public just aren't that interested. Secondly, because the Tories are irreconcilably split on the issue and not even a referendum will settle matters. That's why for seven years as Tory leader Cameron tried to quell discussion, and then when that failed sought to steer a mid-course with gestures of Euroscepticism, such as December 2011′s faux-veto. In the end, he couldn't hold out any longer. The in/out EU referendum is the price he's paid for his ...
The BBC report on a survey of new Welsh Assembly Members by the Hansard Society has found that two of them took a £30,000 pay cut when they were elected. Cue much speculation on who these altuistic politicians may be. They say that surveys and anonymous interviews by the Hansard Society lift the lid on what life is like in the first year of being an AM: New members felt the Welsh government was not accountable enough and that their work-life balance suffered after being elected. The report says many feel as though there are not enough hours in the ...
From the latest YouGov poll: Increase income tax in order to get rid of tuition fees for university students? Overall: Support: 27% Oppose: 58% Amongst Liberal Democrats voters in 2010: Support: 35% Oppose: 53% Amongst 18-24 yeard olds: Support: 34% Oppose: 48%
[IMG: Solar Power] Hampshire Conservatives have once again been caught up in an embarrassing mess, after it emerged that they had forfeited £1.4 million in taxpayers' money, paying for the County's excessive energy emissions. The County Council must pay a levy for every tonne of carbon emissions as a result of electricity and gas use, but residents were shocked to find that very little progress has been made to reduce emissions, with the County's energy plan in tatters. Local campaigners have accused the County of 'dithering' and failing to get on with the job, which has now led to the ...
Southwark GCSE results of pupils getting five or more GCSE's including maths and english A*-C arE: School name Five good GCSEs or equivalents (%) Value Added The From Boyhood To Manhood Foundation (IND) NA NA Harris Boys' Academy East Dulwich (AC) NA NA Alleyn's School (IND) 100 NA James Allen's Girls' School (IND) 100 NA Dulwich College (IND) 93 NA The Charter School 78 1037 Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Secondary School 73 1041 St Michael's Catholic College 71 1017 Bacon's College (AC) 69 980 St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School 67 1035 Harris Girls' Academy East Dulwich ...
If you live in Blyth , you cannot help but notice that Morrisons have been building a new supermarket in Blyth. The existing building has been Presto, Safeway and Morrisons in my time in Blyth, and stands on the site of the former Blyth Station. The building has seen better days, but Morrisons are showing confidence in the town by this new development. The new store opens at 9am on Monday 28th January , giving a wider selection of groceries in store. I know that some people prefer "out of town" shopping, but hopefully the new development will bring shoppers ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Serial multitaskers 'worse at multitasking' – Telegraph This article is from one of 11 tabs I currently have open. Go figure. >> Serial multitaskers 'worse at multitasking' http://buff.ly/WOyFgO Cameron's speech on Europe makes it less likely he will be Prime Minister after the next election – Comment – Voices – The Independent .@SteveRichards14 is right: "When framing a potentially precarious argument, Blair remains the supreme expert" http://buff.ly/WOPRTf www.newstatesman.com It's a race to avoid finishing last, argues @RafaelBehr > "Victory belongs to the one who shrinks the least." http://buff.ly/YpfLC8 Today, Ed Miliband was ...
"What's a nice guy like you doing with a bunch of Tories?" one journalist asked me as I discussed the Barriers to Choice Review. "You see, I'm a Liberal Democrat," I explained... The truth is that this was not a coalition problem. It was a problem about the word 'choice'. My task as an independent reviewer, appointed by the Cabinet Office and the Treasury, was to find out how people used the choices they have been given in schools, hospitals, social care and so on - especially disadvantaged people. But the word 'choice' itself divides people, even those who might ...
The Barriers to Choice Review, which has dominated my life for the last six months, is finally published and there has been a positive response from the government. Three points about it: First, that the bureaucratic barriers to choice are pretty powerful if you are less confident or articulate, and if you want something slightly out of the mainstream. I have looked at ways in which we can increase people's authority in the system, so that they feel more able to ask for what they want. Second, the need that people have, especially disadvantaged people - not just for information, ...
Here's a blog following my visit to Sudan. I went in my capacity as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development. You can see more photos from the trip here. Britain's aid programme is about people, not numbers. But sometimes, the figures are so shocking it is impossible to escape them. This year marks 10 years since the start of conflict in Darfur and the numbers speak for themselves. During 3,655 days of violence, hundreds of thousands have died, millions have been forced from their home and 2.7 million still rely on food aid for survival. As we approach ...
And so Prime Minister and Conservative leader David Cameron has at last made his long-awaited speech outlining his vision of the United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union. On Wednesday morning at the symbolically-chosen venue of the office of American Bloomberg news agency in Central London, Mr Cameron delivered his 45-minute speech, the headline being he will negotiate towards
Thu 24th
12:30
Last chance to support Lib Dem petition on parcel services that has already been signed by thousands...
[IMG: Local resident Asha Kaur, Cllr David Schmitz, Cllr Katherine Reece and Cllr Richard Wilson campaigning to keep local parcel services] Local resident Asha Kaur, Cllr David Schmitz, Cllr Katherine Reece and Cllr Richard Wilson campaigning to keep local parcel services MP Lynne Featherstone and Haringey Liberal Democrats are calling on even more residents to support a petition to keep parcel collection services local. Currently, residents can collect undelivered parcels at local office and collection points in Hornsey, Highgate and at the Arena on Green Lanes. As part of their reorganisation, however, Royal Mail plans to close these offices and ...
Like a prize idiot, I went to work yesterday, but left my laptop at home. Prat! So, time to put the Samsung Galaxy Note II through its paces. I've had the phone for a couple of months and been really pleased with it. But I sensed that I hadn't really used it in anger. I decided to spend the whole day trying to do my work only using the GN2. And, to make the challenge more exciting - no recharges! Let's kick things off! To help with my blogging, I used the official WordPress for Android app. It's pretty good, ...
[IMG: License Some rights reserved by szczel] It may not seem a naturally risky topic, but the rate at which we are wasting food is nothing less than scandalous. From gross inefficiencies at the heart of modern food production to domestic habits, food waste is the quiet scandal of the decade. A recent BBC article reported that up to half of the food we produce is simply thrown away. Worldwide. The waste of North Americans and Europeans, says another report, could feed the world's hungry several times over. This makes for uncomfortable reading on all sides. Those on the political ...
After months of silence it was his chance to – as he saw it – put the record straight, deal with a few myths, start to repair his legacy. No, I'm not talking about Lance Armstrong (there was at least a partial admission of fault in his interview with Oprah), I'm referring to the erstwhile ...
Lions led by Donkeys - as always The British armed forces have always been badly treated by the Governments who sent them to war. The sailors who fought of Phillip II of Spain's armada were left in port to die from disease unpaid, the infamous redcoat of the 1770s was poorly paid in comparison to other less dangerous jobs in the motherland, battalions were sent to garrison forts in the Caribbean and decimated by yellow fever. The Boer war saw poorly trained troops massacred for financial gain and the First World War repeated the same mistakes for no gain at ...
adw 11:10 24/1/2013
As a historian, I've always enjoyed delving into the past to find explanations for current situations. For years through school and University at undergraduate and postgraduate level, I studied historic eras, events and individuals. But despite saying to myself that I would do so year after year after year, I never actually got around to studying the history of something a little closer to home - myself. Who am I? The relentless cycle of life and work has meant that I have continually put off the reality of undertaking family research to uncover where it was I came from and ...
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I've had several emails from people in Colchester about this issue. After discussing it with colleagues to get information, this is my understanding of what happens here: The Night Shelter and the local churches have an emergency plan which is activated in severe weather conditions. I think the April Centre may also be involved. Anyone who wants a warm area to sleep in can have one. There are however some people who refuse this accommodation and prefer to sleep out for whatever reasons. The food distribution group also help to identify people who need accommodation. There's information here about what ...
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 9th January 2013 and 24th January 2013: 150 great things about the Underground This month we celebrated 150 years of the London Underground. So I am linking to this fantastic blog (hat-tip Liberal England ). Looking through it I was blown away by the richness and extent of the networks heritage. As well as the engineering and transport impact that 'the Tube' has had in those 150 years we shouldn't forget the huge ...
Yesterday, David Cameron finally ran out of excuses and got round to delivering his speech about the European Union. It was rubbish. You probably know that already. But it's important to understand why it was rubbish. As Liberal Democrat MEP Bill Newton Dunn pointed out, some positive introductory remarks were nullified by a need to play to the eurosceptic gallery. But the most important failing of Cameron's speech is this: the mechanism he proposes for achieving what he wants is not practical. Worse, it is counter-productive. Worse still, it is impractical and counter-productive because the speech was more a PR ...
[IMG: Academic cap and gown - Some rights reserved by NoDivision] Welcome to the latest in our occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today – it's the effect of being local on a candidate's election chances, courtesy of an article in Political Geography [£]: In this paper, we [analyse] the British General Election of 2010 and the British Election Survey, together with geographical data from Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail, to test the hypothesis that candidate distance matters in voters' choice of candidate. Using a conditional logit model, we find that the distance between voter and candidates from ...
Follows Success of Online Petition and Motion from Member of Parliament NEW YORK, Jan. 24, 2013/PRNewswire/ - In the wake of the child-abuse scandal surrounding BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, the United Kingdom lifted its 500-day travel ban on American journalist Leah McGrath Goodman and restored her visa this past week, allowing her to complete an investigation into allegations of systemic child
With Cameron's EU referendum promise (by 2018) yesterday on a renegotiated EU membership for the UK the "tectonic plates" of British politics have now shifted again. UKIP deserve credit for having contributed, perhaps decisively to Cameron's decision to opt for this plebiscite. It's even more impressive when you consider that they do not even have any MPs. However the announcement could provoke an existential crisis within the new upstart right-wing party. Their main (although by no means only) policy is for an in/out referendum on Europe. It's why the party was formed and is really the only policy that they ...
2009 continued the trend from 2008 of sporadic and irregular blogging, with some months entirely missed out, and others packed full of posts. This is the inconsistent blogging pattern I'd keep up for a few years, always happy to think of myself as having a blog, even if I rarely put any actual content on there. January featured an announcement that an announcement on the new Doctor was going to be made, but then no actual reaction to it, not even on the new official White House blog. Twitter jumped the shark in February when I announced the creation of ...
Change: It happens. (TW: A brief reference to rape) « Feminist Aspie (tags: ) 'Get Britain Cycling' inquiry examines cycling strategy | CTC (tags: ) Britons Want to See UKIP, Green Party Leaders in Televised Debates | Angus Reid Public Opinion (tags: ) UKIP's Spending Cuts - CONFIRMED | Independent Thought (tags: ) Nerdflix episode 6 - The Five Doctors (autostarts, sorry) If any of you missed my guest spot on Nerdflix you can listen to it here (tags: ) Obesity and poverty: the evidence | The FactCheck Blog "There is good evidence that poor people tend to be fatter ...
[IMG: David Cameron - Some rights reserved by The Prime Minister's Office] There will be lots of fascinating analysis of the prime minister's speech on Europe. However, this response from the deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, Katinka Barysch, over at Comment is Free caught my eye (emphasis added): Germany, France and other EU countries have indicated that they want to accommodate Cameron to help Britain to stay in the union. What they simply cannot do is to allow Britain a pick-and-choose membership in response to the threat of withdrawal. Why should Britain be allowed to flout some ...
Back last May, the count was messed up in one ward at the Denbighshire County Council elections: [IMG: Denbighshire County Council logo] Returning officer and council chief executive Mohammed Mehmet said a block of ballot papers which should have been allocated to the Labour candidate Paul Penlington were "inadvertently" allocated to Tory Allan Pennington, who won the last of the three seats available on the ward. A very poor mistake for the council staff to make as it was such an obvious possible problem with two candidates with similar names. Yet the rest of our electoral machinery has hardly covered ...
In his memoirs, published 1979, Jo Grimond, the most impressive of the post war leaders of the Liberal party, who had served under Montgomery in he liberation of Europe, wrote: It is... no service to Churchill's memory to suggest that but for him we might have surrendered. And, of course, once America joined in the war, let alone Russia, we were bound to win. If anything is remarkable, it is remarkable that it took so long. Yet we came out of the war being told that we had saved the world by a unique act of courage against fearful odds. ...
The Schengen Curtain, by Marko Đedović Wonderful immigration policies which penalise the innocent traveller and encourage criminality. (tags: migration eu humanrights belgium ) Cameron's backward-looking speech Mark Leonard: "a miscalculation which will leave everyone frustrated". (tags: ukpolitics EU ) David Cameron's argument will fool no-one, and will relegate the existing EU-UK relationship to the periphery Julian Priestley doesn't mince his words. (tags: ukpolitics EU )
Well, that's the first line of the writing on a leaflet delivered by Northumberland County Council this week. Actually it is announcing the consultation on the Core Strategy Preferred Options, which sounds a dry subject which at first glance will put many people off. It is not about specific applications, but more about the strategy on such items as Planning, New business, Environmental Protection, and Renewable Energy There will be an "informal drop in" on Tuesday 12th February at Blyth CEC on the Quayside ( Ridley Street ..?) between 10 am and 8 pm There are others throughout the county ...
St Nicolas church, Newbury: [IMG: image] St Mary's church, Greenham: [IMG: image] The Hatchet pub, Newbury Market Place: [IMG: image] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Yesterday, I received constituent concerns about the length of lights sequence at the Sinderins junction. The concern was that whilst vehicles sitting in Hawkhill going west into Perth Road have a long period of "green" and many vehicles get through on green, vehicles heading the same direction but leaving from Perth Road (shopping area) to continue along Perth Road get an inadequate time with only 4-5 cars getting through on green. The result was build ups along Perth Road eastwards into the shopping area. I brought the matter to the attention of the City Council's Head of Transportation who advised ...
I have criticised proposals by Dundee City Council's SNP administration to switch from weekly to fortnight bin collections in the city. The SNP fortnightly bin collection proposal will be deeply unpopular with residents and will without doubt lead to problems of refuse build up in streets and in back areas of flats. The council administration does not seem to have grasped the point that Dundee has a high density of flats and tenement accommodation much of which has limited refuse storage space, so their proposal to move away from weekly bin collections is bound to lead to problems of build ...
Thu 24th
05:05
Not acceptable for suspected cancer patients to be waiting longer than 62 days to see a specialist
Statistics released yesterday have revealed that cancer waiting times are continuing to get worse. The Welsh government's target is for 95% of urgent suspected cancer patients to be seen by a cancer specialist by 62 days. Statistics for November have shown that the target was missed by 10%, with just 85% of patients being seen within the target time. Not a single Local Health Board in the whole of Wales met the 95% target. 62 days is already a incredibly long time for a person to have to wait to be seen by a cancer specialist, but being forced to ...
Well that was quite a speech Mr Cameron. I guess it will take a few days for me to fully absorb what I think it all means for the future but some things strike me straight away. On Twitter I asked whether it was Cameron's '95 Theses on the Reformation of Europe' (with thanks to Archbishop Cramner) or was it purely about Tory electoral prospects? I think the truth is it is rather more about Tory electoral prospects and outflanking the UKIP. Interestingly, Lord Ashcroft - the Tory benefactor, pollster and strategist - points out that when they talk about ...
Denmark is becoming fashionable – Borgen, Noma, lego revivals, the Bridge. At the moment they can do no wrong. What of their Eurovision campaign? They seem to have developed a niche for themselves a sub-genre of earnest MOR `sensible shoes` Pop that has a distinctly Danish sound. If they carry on down this route (see ...
Can you remember the first time you voted? The trip to the local school, library, church or scout hall. Nervously standing in line for with your polling card, waiting for your name to be checked and the ballot issued. Going into the age-old wooden booths and marking your cross with a pencil on the end of a string (and not before reading and re-reading the instructions at the top of the paper). Folding the paper, and posting it in the box. Leaving the station with a sense of - of what? Satisfaction and elation? Relief? Achievement?... A sense of maturity ...
